Cast Iron Concern

Last week, a few days after I went Primal, I bought a cast iron skillet.

As soon as I felt him in my hand a love began to blossom, and it became clear that he needed a name. Ricardo. Ricardo, my cast iron skillet.

Ricardo and I set out in a flurry of buffalo, bacon, eggs, salmon, and burgers. He's a youngster and quickly took to any grease I fed him. I've spent hours cooking, talking, pampering, and oiling him down. Ricardo is more well cared for than any pet I've ever owned.

But no! This very day I've noticed something off in my beloved Ricardo! He seems to be going through a puberty of sorts, and like many parents, I just don't have the answers. Is he getting stronger and growing, or is he getting a rash? My heart goes out to poor, confused Ricardo, and as a single parent I must turn to others for help.

His uniform sheen is gone, replaced by a worrying array of patterns and colors of various gleam! Please, help me understand what's happening to my dear boy:

Sorry I can't help you. What would be the cast-iron equivalent of a "black thumb" for plants? A gooey thumb? A sticky thumb? Whatever you call it, it ain't good. I've really, really tried, but I'm a failure as a cast-iron parent.

Did you season him? If not, he's getting seasoned. By the looks of it, that's what's happening.

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It's an uneven seasoning. The dark, glossy spots are where you have a great seasoning and the rough, lighter spots are where the seasoning has broken off. You are either washing it too hard with whatever tool you are using (metal wool, etc), or using such high heat cooking that you are blasting your own seasoning off.

It's an uneven seasoning. The dark, glossy spots are where you have a great seasoning and the rough, lighter spots are where the seasoning has broken off. You are either washing it too hard with whatever tool you are using (metal wool, etc), or using such high heat cooking that you are blasting your own seasoning off.

Dark, glossy spots? Are we talking the area on the right that's developed an almost caramelized color or is that the part that's going bad?

In spite of the decided tone in that article by "Captain Jack", I differ a little from some of his recommendations.

But some are right on, such as using a nasty omega-6 vegetable oil for the initial seasoning, instead of animal fat. Sunflower oil will leave a hard residue, while olive oil stays soft even if used in high temperature. (I used to pop corn in sunflower oil, and the dome would get coated with this rock-hard varnish-like substance. Olive oil one could always wipe off.)

When the pan is done, it should be a velvety uniform black inside, without a metallic sheen, except on the outside and/or the handle.

I differ about the high temperature. I had taken an Ebay skillet (nice old one) down to base metal and I was seasoning it. The day I had some fat left in it after cooking, but forgot to turn off the electric burner for a couple of hours (but it was on low) the seasoning improved a lot.

While the fully seasoned coating is black, I don't think it is pure carbon. I think it is a varnish from the oil. It will gradually improve in stick-free qualities over a few months of steady use.

I take a stainless steel kind of old scouring pad, put a few drops of dish detergent in it, and apply it vigorously with rotary motion in the sink under running water. After the passage of time, this is not enough abuse to remove or harm the coating. Then I take the still damp pan and put it on a stove burner set to low. And I rub a little coconut oil or unsalted butter into the pan. It's good to go.

I've heard that the iron in old skillets is better than what you can get now, so when I changed my mind about cookware, cursing the day when I gave away my old cast iron skillets, and triple-cursing the day we cleaned out my mother's house and I didn't keep hers (that was a really stupid thing to do), I went to Ebay and bought some nice old cast iron, dating from the 1930's or thereabouts. There are people who make a minor home business of taking old funky rusty cruddy cast iron skillets, cleaning them right down right to zip (using chemicals) and then meticulously re-seasoning them and selling them on Ebay. They pull down some fairly big prices, especially if they are particularly choice collector's item brands, which seems kind of silly to me. I chose one which looked pretty good in the photos, but hadn't been "improved" in that way. It was far cheaper, and it's a very nice pan, especially now that I have it back up to snuff. It's getting nice and slippery when I cook in it now. I got it last winter sometime.

Used properly, they will last for generations. This was one thing which decided me when I decided to stop buying teflon coated pans for frying -- the constant need for replacement. That, and the toxic fumes teflon gives off if you let it get hot. I still have a teflon-coated saucepan, but that's for liquids and doesn't get that hot.

Don't use anything acid (like tomato sauce) in a cast iron pan until it is very thoroughly seasoned. They get less fussy with the passage of time.

Dark, glossy spots? Are we talking the area on the right that's developed an almost caramelized color or is that the part that's going bad?

The parts I like the best are the almost black edges of the center light patch. I don't care a lot for the reddish place -- it might mean some rust, or it might be incomplete seasoning. You can tell better than me if it's getting rusty. If it is, scrub it out hard with a scouring pad, and start over again. Never let it sit wet, put it on the stove with low heat till it dries, then rub a little oil on it -- coconut oil, unsalted butter, or even a little bacon grease.

Realize that the color you want to end up with is black -- black, velvety black like the sky at midnight. Ricardo will look wonderful in basic black.

I like to season mine by rubbing it with a good oil, either coconut or bacon grease then setting in in the oven on low with the top facing down. It will help even out the tone of the seasoning. I also agree with putting it on a low stove after washing and letting it hang out until it dries then rubbing in a bit of oil. After it cools I rub out the excess oil.

I may use cheap soybean oil instead of the uber expensive flax oil though. I think that since you are polymerizing the fat anyway, it doesn't really matter what you use, but using a drying oil makes sense.

I usually just clean my cast iron by rubbing them with kosher salt and a napkin (unless they get REALLY dirty). Alton Brown did that on an episode of Good Eats.